Good job me

I'd like to take this opportunity, now that Evelyn is 16 weeks and 6 days old (because we all know what a milestone THAT is), to give myself a little pat on the back. (All men can probably stop reading here.) I believe she's about 14 pounds now, and I have given her every single ounce. She not only has 4 thigh rolls (the 4th one is kinda puny, right behind her knee), but is developing quite lovely cankles, too.


Honestly, I have yet to personally meet someone who was in pain as long as I was due to feeding issues (although I have heard of some). Feel free to leave comments saying all the magical solutions you found, but I probably tried them all. I know that formula fed babies thrive and are just as smart, well adjusted, and loved as breastfed babies, and Evelyn would be fine if she were getting formula. However, I made the decision to breastfeed because I thought it was best for us, and gallons of blood, sweat, and tears later (yes, all three), she has never gotten anything but milk I made. I realize this isn't some sort of endurance test; I certainly know many people who are better mothers than I am who feed their babies formula. I am just amazed that *I* was able to stick around with breastfeeding this long as I have an incredibly low pain tolerance and am pretty much a total whimp when it comes to anything involving physical discomfort. (Of course, I'm also excessively lazy, so it's possible that my lazy side just won out over my whimp side, but I'd like to pretend that's not entirely the case). Who knows how much longer this will last, since every new month brings a new joy - currently, milk blisters. Maybe I'll wean her tomorrow, but in the meantime, I deserve some validation for doing something really hard for a really long time. Go me.

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January 28

January 29

January 31

6 more weeks

Late last week, I got the call I'd been hoping for since before I started my maternity leave - the firm is upping paid leave for the parent who is the primary caregiver by 6 weeks. My maternity leave was scheduled to end on 12.30, but I took some vacation to extend it until 1.20. Because I was still on some form of paid leave during part of the month of January, I qualify for the extra 6 weeks! Woohoo! We're definitely going to dinner to celebrate, as soon as I can handle leaving Evelyn alone long enough (I'm not thinking a quick dinner in the neighborhood - more like a 3-hour affair somewhere further downtown - Gramercy Tavern is calling my name).

* * *

January 24 - after a few weeks of frustration at seeing other people walking around with Phil and Ted's in a semi but not fully upright position, poring over the online directions, and wondering why I wasn't smart enough to figure out how to get my stroller to do the same thing, I just asked someone. Unzip the zippers with the buckles buckled. Of course! Luckily Evelyn finally gets to actually see where she's going instead of just what's overhead. Trust me, she loves it.

January 25 - for my sister, Careen, who has expressed her opinion that Evelyn looks like my sister Laurel, I present to you . . . "the pony face"

(and just so everyone else isn't totally lost . . .)

January 26

January 27

Engagement poll

Almost four years after John and I got married, we might finally have another wedding in my family. Now, don't get too excited. My sister is not engaged. No proposal. No ring. But she is, apparently, getting married. She has picked out the dress. He has booked the temple. They have planned their honeymoon. I, however, have not purchased my wedding gift or bought plane tickets just yet, because after all, they're not engaged.

This situation has me reflecting on four years ago. John had just returned to New York to start full-time with PwC. We got engaged in late March of that year, and up until the moment he was kneeling in front of me asking me, I honestly did not know we were going to get married. I knew I wanted to marry him, but I had no idea whether the feeling was mutual. In fact, I had just spent a week in Peru with a good friend whose boyfriend had broken up with her the year before instead of proposing, even though he had already bought the ring. They were on their second round of dating at the time, and after spending the week with her, I was fatalistically certain that there was no way we would get married.

Being LDS, perhaps there's a temptation to have as short an engagement as possible, which leads to situations like the one my sister's in. How common is this phenomenon? Did you know you were getting married before you were engaged?

And the money kept rolling out

I successfully made it out to the fabricators again last week (this time during business hours), and picked up two granite samples. We're thinking of perhaps costa esmerelda or bianco romano for the countertops. I suppose we'd go with a green tile backsplash for the first and probably grey for the second. I'm leaning toward the bianco romano. I love the green, but I feel like green is really in right now, which might be why I love it (think avocado appliances in the 70s, although to a lesser extent). The slab they're cutting off at this point is lighter than the one shown below, but it does have the cranberries, which I really like.


My first pick was donna sandra granite, but I haven't been able to figure out a way to get it here (the three distributors I've found who carry it ship only instate - Ohio and Indiana). Isn't it gorgeous? Tracking it down is my goal for our next apartment, where I'll be able to enjoy it longer than we will hopefully stay in our current place.

I took the first definitive kitchen renovation step yesterday by actually placing the cabinet order. Murphy's law dictated that this 3+-hour ordeal occur on a day when Evelyn had refused to take any decent naps and was therefore excessively overtired - and of course, in a lovely mood as a result. We ended up not being able to get the style we wanted because it did not come in the sizes we needed (first problem, they did not have a size of cabinet that would fit above the fridge since we're getting a narrower fridge, so we would have had to forgo any cabinetry above the fridge). Unfortunately, the switch makes the cabinets more expensive by about 60 percent, although I do like them better.

Style

Color

And of course, what is a blog post without more pictures of Evelyn. Caitlin came over to take 3 month pics on Monday, and we got a few cute ones, although she was in more of an inquisitive mood than a smiley mood. We're missing a few days (or have only camera phone pics) because we lost the charger for our camera battery. Luckily we found it again. A replacement was going to be $30. That seems like kind of a lot to me.

January 10 - Why do these animals on my mobile cast such ominous shadows?

January 11 - Thank you Auntie Chris! We love presents!

January 12 - Evelyn is THIS big!

January 13 - just hangin' out nekkid. Again.

January 14 - hard at work

January 15 - (and yes, I know I'm not supposed to sit here)

Fine, child safety advocates, happy now?

January 17 - for those who wonder, as I used to, whether the baby might get cold in her stroller, I present to you Evelyn's preferred napping spot (two and a half hours!)

January 18 - sitting up for the first time

January 19 - subway surfing

January 20 - when you have a pair of really great shoes, who needs clothes?

My Other Obsession

Anyone who has spoken to me over the past few weeks and months can testify to the fact that I am obsessed with my baby - how often she eats, how often she sleeps, when she goes to bed, why she wakes up, how I can keep her from waking up, etc, etc, etc. Over the past couple of weeks, however, she's had to share that single track of my mind with something else - our kitchen renovation. I'm starting to get an idea of what I think we might do.

Cabinets

(just for the detail view; we'll go with one of the darker two finishes above)

Sink (with cutting board and colander)

and faucet

Appliances

We still need to pick out granite. I'm possibly going to attempt visiting the granite place again tomorrow, less than one week after our 4-hour debacle last weekend. So, what do you think?

The Next Generation

During our holiday travels, Evelyn and I had the opportunity to visit my Grandpa and Grandma (Nana and Evelyn's aunties came too). It was really wonderful to see them again as I had only seen them twice since high school - once for a couple of hours my junior year of college, and then again on our wedding day. I really enjoyed the opportunity to spend quality time with them at their home - I have so many memories there from my childhood. In any case, if you see this Grandma and Grandpa, thank you again for having us. Hopefully we can make it something of a tradition. Nana kindly supplied a picture of the day (since I apparently was totally off my game over the break, as set forth below).

Holiday picture roundup

We had a fun and eventful holiday. In 19 days, Evelyn and I made 5 one-way plane flights. Impressive, huh? Evelyn also proved that she can roll over from front to back (first on December 23, for the record), although she lacks the motivation to do it regularly. She gave us her first real belly laughs, although nothing seems to consistently evoke them (once it was her bath, once it was tickling, and another time riding on a rocking horse . . . random). And of course, she gets cuter every day. Especially today, when she took a 2.5 hour nap (I think perhaps her longest EVER) this morning and then another 2 hour nap this afternoon during our fruitless trip to Brooklyn (2 hours each way only to get there 10 minutes before the store was supposed to close to find out they had closed early). These naps come at a good time, as I had been sending desperate emails to all the new moms I know the past few days due to a run of really horrible 30 minute naps accompanied with lots of screaming - growth spurts are great that way.

I'm sure I'll think of more amusing holiday stories later, but for the moment, forgive a post that's mainly (1) a lot of pictures and (2) a list of dates/things I want to remember for later but can't even remember to write down somewhere now.

* * *

December 20

December 21 - Christmas #2 with Mommy and Daddy this time - Are those presents for ME?!?!?

December 22 - why does that baby like playing on her tummy so much? I hate playing on my tummy. What does she know that I don't?

December 23

December 24

December 25

December 26

December 27

December 28

December 29

December 30

December 31 - Mommy was too sick to take pictures - for those who might be wondering, food poisoning and nursing don't mix; I could barely hold the baby up. Luckily, she didn't suffer too much, just a bad diaper rash.

January 1 - missing; maybe someone else has one

January 2

January 3

January 4, coming soon, pictures of Evelyn and great-Grandpa

January 5 - again, maybe aunties or Nana has one . . .

January 6

January 7 - pre National Championship euphoria - Go Bucks!

January 8 - well, at least the cougars won their bowl game . . .

January 9 - home again - not sure I like this . . .